I have a tender heart. I easily cry but thank God I can already control my tears from dropping (because it's not good to cry in front of my patients, although during my first exposure I CAN'T HELP)
Just a little background of how our duty rotation happens. Every 3 weeks we are exposed to different areas in the hospital or in the community. So my 4th rotation was in the community which was held at Pacpaco, San Fernando, La Union. Pacpaco is a mountainous place that is so far from the city, few transportation. The result, if they get complications or sickness it would be so hard for them to go to the hospital. They don't get the benefits of the free services from the government.
But remember that in this community not everyone is unfortunate, some people who live there have a big house and have its own transportation.
We had our house-house visit, vital signs-taking, health teachings, nurse-patient interaction and not to forget the good memories and a life-time learning from our patients.
BUT THIS PATIENT CHANGED MY PERCEPTION IN LIFE.
Let us hide Lola's name to Flor.
I still remember a bit of our conversation while she was doing something (picture above)
Me: nang, mano tawen yon? (Ma'am how old are you?)
Flor: *silence for few seconds* haan ko ammo iti tawen kon.....42 years old. (I don't know how old I am..... I am 42)
yes guys, she guessed her age.
Flor: aguk-ukisak ta ilakok to datoy. kayat yo nga ramanan? (I am peeling these because I will sell this later. Do you want to taste it?)
by the way guys, those were tamarinds. they can sell it by reproducing it as a candy.
So I got one and tasted, it tastes sweet.
Me: mano ngay met tit lako yo dita nang? (how much do you sell it?)
Flor: 1kilo ket sangapulo pesos met. (1 kilo for 10 pesos....that's less than a dollar)
so going on, we asked for how much income she gets in a week/month, where are her family, her educational background, livelihood, who's living with her and not to forget her health. Here are some of important details from her.
Flor only finished grade 1. (that's one of the reasons why she doesn't know her age. She can't read and can't count. She lived her life farming) She has children and grandchildren but don't live in the same house. Flor only have her daughter with her.
We also interviewed her daughter, at first she was hesitant but of course as a student nurse we need to as much as possible convince our patients to be interviewed.
When we asked how old is she, she answered "17 y/o" (because they don't know, anyway she is at 40's)
Flor gets her income by selling few vegetables in her backyard. She makes less than P500 a month. Sometimes less than P200.
Those times I feel my heart shutter. I am so lucky. I should be feeling thankful everyday because I get to eat the foods I want and buy UNNECESSARY things. I have an easy access to my needs and wants. But God, she can't even eat a single meat in a month.
Regarding Flor's health, we took her BP, I can't remember exactly but we got higher than normal. So we asked her to stop what she's doing, take a rest, drink fluids and will get the BP again for 15mins.
Other than that, Flor said that she often feels headache, pain in the nape and she can no longer see well. Imagine she told us that it's almost night during the sun brightly shines upon us.
After 15 mins, we took again and it's back to normal. Followed by health teachings.
My groupmates and I planned to come back and help our patients by sharing some of our own.
Although we disobeyed one rule of our school, to not give anything from us to the patients (they said the reason was they become dependent). We didn't think twice, we wouldn't leave this opportunity to help behind and regret for the rest of our lives, saying, I should have done something. We helped her regardless of being student nurses. We helped her as human-beings.
We also helped other patients. Not only Lola.
Here are some of our memories <3
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| they are so generous, our patients always offer us veggies |
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| trying to cut. these are used for them to cook. Thank you so much for reading! BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE NOW. YOU JUST DON'T KNOW THAT WHAT YOU ARE IGNORING RIGHT NOW IS A BIG DREAM TO SOMEONE. IF YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO HELP, DON'T HESITATE TO GIVE IT. Let us open our minds and hearts. LIVE WITH PURPOSE! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING! I HOPE YOU ARE INSPIRED WITH THE STORY OF LOLA FLOR. Lots of love, Jen |
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